


What's Up, Danger?

by sergeant_angel



Series: A Head Full of Doubt/A Road Full of Promise [6]
Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Gen, Infinity Stones, Multi, anyway FUCK thanos, billy kaplan: god-in-training, canon character death, character resurrection, humans are scary trope, in a myriad of ways, preemptive FUCK YOU to endgame, the young avengers save the universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-01-31 14:37:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18593296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sergeant_angel/pseuds/sergeant_angel
Summary: Thanos does his Thanos thing, and the Young Avengers are not having it. They go on a universe-spanning journey to kick Thanos' stupid grape ass. Saving the universe is an unexpected side effect.





	What's Up, Danger?

**Author's Note:**

> look i'm going to see endgame finally but I wanted to put this up before I went so I can truly enjoy my rage at the movie.  
> this is unedited or betaed and barely looked over, but I hope you enjoy it! I may come back and polish it up a bit

Kate is absolutely not taking a nap when her phone goes off.

“Huh?” She says, picking it up.

“Did I wake you?” Tony sounds strained, like he’s probably in the suit.

“Nope,” Kate says, because technically she’s pretty sure she was awake, there’s just something very relaxing about the sun soaking into all of her old creaky joints, loosening her muscles.

She’s _not_ a cat. She just has lots of battle injuries.

“I know you’re lying,” Tony says. “But we have a problem. Where’s your lesser two-thirds?”

“I am a whole person, jackass. And Steve’s...doing a thing. Bucky’s feeding the goats.”

“I thought that was a joke.”

“No, he really has goats...” Kate trails off. “So, what’s the problem? We’re retired, you know.”

“Bullshit. You can’t retire until you’re at least forty. We’ve got...a situation. There are aliens. In New York.”

“What, again?”

“Yeah, this time they mean business, though. They’re after a wizard with a glowing necklace that might be an Infinity Stone?”

Kate’s stomach sinks.

“Okay, next time lead with Infinity Stone, okay? I’ll make a call—do you need us in New York?”

“No, I’d just—if you could gather the team. That would be a start.”

Kate flips on to her feet. “Got it. Get back with you soon.”

Kate shields her eyes from the sun, squinting until she spots Bucky, leaning down to better listen to one of the neighborhood kids.

The adults are sometimes wary of Bucky, and the kids think this is the stupidest thing they’ve ever witnessed, and it’s hilarious.

“Bucky!” She cups her hands over her mouth and shouts. “Grab an arm, we gotta go!”

...

They don’t actually go anywhere—Shuri’s working on a new arm that’s more combat-ready so they head to her lab, and then they get a message from Steve telling them to stay put, which obviously isn’t going to happen since trouble is brweing. Bucky stays in Wakanda while Shuri finishes hooking him up and Okoye figures out Steve’s location. She drops Kate in, leaving her wandering the streets of London trying to figure out where to go next when she hears the fight.

One thing you can say about Steve: he’s consistent.

…

They’re back in the States which is supremely uncomfortable since Ross still has a No Kate-Steve-Bucky policy, but Rhodey turns off whatever holo-call he and Ross had going and gives Kate and Steve hugs.

It does make Kate feel better inside.

Nate and Noh are even there, both giving her hugs as well—slightly less awkward than she would have guessed.

If it weren’t for the Infinity Stone bullshit going down, it might almost be nice.

“Eliminating the stone is the only way to be certain Thanos can’t get it.” Vision fidgets as Nate prods at his arm and shoulder, presumably trying to figure out what got damaged.

Wanda gives Kate a pleading look, as if asking her to come up with an alternative, as if Kate is an expert of some kind on Infinity Stones, just because she knew what they were before anyone else.

“That’s too high a price.” Steve says with a shake of his head.

Nate moves aside as Wanda crosses to Viz, taking one of his hands in hers. They talk to each other in low tones, words not meant for the rest of them.

Steve is staring at Kate, something dark and lost in his eyes.

“Thanos threatens half the universe,” Vision says to the group. “One life cannot stand in the way of defeating him.”

“But it should. We don't trade lives.” Steve is looking at her as he says it. It’s been a few years but she still remembers his fuck-the-world speech, standing in the Wakandan sunset as he told her he wasn’t about to start trading her or Bucky for anything. Not anymore.

Kate swallows around the dryness in her throat before stepping towards Vision. “We have other options before we get to that, Viz. We happen to know the smartest person in the world.”

Sam grins. “She’s gonna be thrilled to meet you, man.”

...

Kate groans as she shifts, trying to get air back into her lungs. It hurts, so she’s probably broken them. Again. Which isn’t surprising, considering Thanos just threw her into a tree.

Something is wrong.

Thanos is gone.

She stares at Thor, then has to look away—not at the look of shock on his face, but because when she looks at Thor she remembers that Thanos choked Loki to death, his throat crushed, and the thought of it makes Kate’s skin crawl, makes her want to scream.

“Where did he go?” She shouts. “Thor? What the fuck? Where did he go?”

“What happened?” Steve stumbles into Kate, clutching his side. She hauls him up to his feet, slinging his arm over her shoulder. She’d thought—when Thanos punched Steve—she’d been so afraid. She’s never seen Steve look so _small._ But he’s okay. He’s okay, though, that’s the important thing.

“Something’s wrong,” she says, frowning. The world is strangely quiet. “I don’t get it. Why would he just leave?”

“Where did he go?” Steve asks. “Thor? Where did he go?”

Thor shrugs, wordlessly, hopelessly.

“Steve?”

Kate and Steve turn towards Bucky’s voice, reaching for him, when his arm starts to—to melt, or fade, or dissolve.

“Bucky?” Steve lurches towards him, his hand closing around metal fingers just as they vanish, Bucky’s eyes landing on Kate only to blink and disappear into nothingness, dust that melts away to air.

“Buck?” Steve says again, his weight lifting off of Kate--

“No,” she whispers, grasping Steve’s wrist. “No, Steve, please--”

He turns to face her, his hand reaching up to cup her cheek only to be gone by the time he gets it there.

“Kate, I--”

Kate reaches for him and he’s gone, her hands closing around dust.

When she opens her palm, even that is gone.

Nothing.

As if he never existed.

All around her, distant but pervasive, cries go up. Names being called. Wailing.

And she is alone.

“Oh, god,” someone says, over and over. It takes Kate a few minutes to realize the person saying it is her, for her to be aware of herself, of her arms wrapped around her middle and how she is rocking back and forth as Thor stares out across the plains. They’re gone—nothing left, not armor or dog tags or—or---

There’s just nothing.

…

Shuri is still here. They are sleeping in her lab, along with Okoye and M’baku and Erik.

Rocket is outside, using Shuri’s tech to boost a signal, to try and contact Quill or anyone. No luck, though it’s only been running a few hours.

Kate hasn’t slept in two days. She dozes, on and off, but can’t ever manage to really sleep, because when she does, she just dreams about Steve and Bucky fading away from her.

Sam is gone. Sharon, T’Challa, Wanda, Vision.

Groot. Noh. Tommy.

Tony and Pete have disappeared, Clint and Nick aren’t answering their phones, Doctor Strange is gone and Rocket can’t get ahold of the Guardians.

Half of Bucky’s goats are even gone.

The world is falling apart, and Kate doesn’t know what to do.

She doesn’t really care, either.

….

Kate makes sure Shuri eats. That’s really important, for some reason. Food tastes like cardboard in Kate’s mouth, but she makes sure Shuri forces something down every day.

She and Erik bring food to families around the capital, and it keeps them moving, keeps them focused on people who can’t take care of themselves—kids who lost both parents, older siblings in charge of younger ones--

Kate doesn’t really pay attention. The days pass in a haze, a numbness she doesn’t want to let go of.

Nights are the worst, though. Nightmares, waking up alone—remembering that it’s all real.

…

Kate is crying. She’s not sobbing or wailing, she’s capable of carrying on conversations, but the tears won’t stop flowing down her cheeks.

“They’re gone. Tony and Steve and Bucky and Susan and Pepper--” her voice breaks.

“Pete too, I think.” Rhodey squeezes Kate’s shoulder. “Sam.”

“And Clint, and Nick,” she babbles on. “And only little Lila is left--”

She can’t breathe.

“Kate.” Rhodey squeezes harder. “We’re going back to the States, the Avengers that are left, some of your team, too. Remember, we talked about this?”

She does.

“We’re leaving in twenty minutes,” he reminds her, which she also remembers.

“I’m not.” She says.

“You sure?”

“No. I’m not sure about anything,” Kate admits. “But Ross is still alive, and I don’t feel like dealing with it now.” She wipes her tears on her sleeve. “I’ll see you, Rhodey.”

“Take care of yourself, Hawkeye. I’ll be calling you in real soon.”

“Yes, sir,” she says.

He gives her a faint smile. “Okay, soldier. See you then.”

…

Rhodey calls her in. Rhodey is the one that drags her back out into the bright light of existence. Messages take longer to get places now, and it’s been almost four months since Thanos, and Rhodey calls her back to New York. He doesn’t say why, and Kate doesn’t care, so she goes.

Kate wanders, a duffel with a few important items stuffed hastily in it with two changes of clothes. Shuri grabs her, looks a new band of kimyo beads around Kate’s wrist and Okoye yanks Kate into a crushing hug.

They’ll be okay here. Nakia and M’Baku are in charge of the government right now since T’Challa--

“Any word on the signal?” Kate asks. Talking is better than thinking. Anything is better than thinking.

Shuri shakes her head, her gaze flicking over to the old-skool pager they’d found near Nick’s car. His last action had been to send that signal, and it’s got to be important. The logo continues to flash, a symbol Kate feels certain she’s seen before but can’t place.

“I’ll let you know,” Shuri says, eyes trained back on the footage she has of Thanos before he disappeared. Someone’s suit was transmitting data to her—readings on the Stones and the glove, on Thanos himself, and she’s been poring over it for weeks trying to find a weakness.

Nobody really has a solid plan—people like Nakia, Rhodey, Billy, they’re all about trying to move forward, to figure out who needs help who’s left.

Not all of them are that good at forward thinking.

Some of them really, really want to kill Thanos. All they need is a ride.

...

She and David land in the States, leaning against one another in a daze, messaging Shuri to let her know they’re safe--

Kate feels bad about that. Shuri lost so much and has latched on to Kate and David, just a bit. Kate messages Erik to make sure he eats dinner with her—he will, but Kate feels better reminding him.

They don’t make it to Rhodey, though. Billy gets them first. David, he sends to Xavier’s. To Kate, he says, “I think we need to take a road trip.”

…

Billy has given her worried side-eyes this entire trip, gaze flicking from Kate’s hands gripping the steering wheel with aching force and the road, where she swerves around abandoned vehicles and ignores posted speed limit signs. It doesn’t really matter at the moment, anyway. What’s left of law enforcement has better things to do than pull her over for speeding.

Their first stop is her grandparents house, the neighborhood silent.

The house, silent. No barking dogs. No singing, or familiar sounds of weaving.

There is no one there. A trowel, half-buried by tomato plants, a half-woven blanket on the loom, and nothing else.

Kate starts to shake, and Billy puts his hand on her shoulder.

But they’re not done.

They have to keep going.

…

The first reservation they reach is empty.

Kate holds it together, sitting in the car in silence until Billy reaches over and touches her elbow and all at once it’s too much, all of it—all of _this_ , all of this that Thanos did to _her_ , to _Billy_ , to their people, to the people--

She pulls over with a screech of tires, parking the car and flinging the door open. She stumbles a few feet away,  every inch of her skin itchy and hot, her head buzzing and stomach roiling.

Kate heaves until her stomach is empty, car door open and the sound of the engine cutting through the silence.

They’re all gone.

All of them.

Billy gives her a minute before coming over to her rubbing the space between her shoulder blades.

Kate has always loved Billy, of course, but she doesn’t think she’s understood him, or loved him, quite as much as she does in this moment.

“We’re going to kill Thanos, right?” He asks, his hand firm on her back.

Kate can’t comprehend this on a universal level. Her brain isn’t built for it.

But she can understand what Thanos did right here, to these people. To her people, and Billy’s.

_He killed us,_ Billy said. 

“He took everything.” She is hollow, but something beats inside her, reverberating against the emptiness like her body is a drum, and even though she has nothing and is nothing, she has this beat that will carry her through what happens next. “Not just the people. Of course we’re going to kill him.”

…

Everything about her feels blank and so very, very fragile. She can feel Rhodey’s eyes on her as she takes in the compound’s armory. There’s Sam’s confiscated wing pack that there’s no Sam left to use. There is Pietro’s anti-friction suit, there is a new prototype Spider-suit, there are twelve quivers of arrows, there is War Machine--

There is Steve’s shield.

“You okay there, Hawkeye?” Rhodey takes a half-step towards her but stops when she nods.

“I’m fine,” she says, but her voice sounds wrong even to her own ears. “Do we want to take all of this with us, or are we going to come back here before space?”

“We have to come back,” he says. No, he reminds her. They’ve gone through this already. “Noh’s ship is here.”

“Right.” She walks towards the shield. It would be gone if Steve had been holding it during the battle, so it being here—it feels like a sign, or a cruel joke, and Kate doesn’t like either option.

Without a thought, she grips the edge and slings it on her arm, gripping the cracked leather nobody’s bothered to treat since Steve left it in Sibera. She’ll have to fix that. It feels right on her arm, the weight of it familiar and comforting.

Rhodey is staring.

“I’ve used it before,” she says by way of explanation, remembering Steve’s nightmares about her falling to her death because she didn’t know how to use it, because of _him_. 

“Wouldn’t care if you had, Hawkeye,” Rhodey says, and this time he does put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing. “We’re going to avenge them.”

She straightens her spine, pushing her shoulders back. “I know.”

…

They need Eli. They have Nate and America, but they’re actually going to go pick Eli and Cassie up. They could try to send for them, but Kate feels like it’s something that has to be done in person, to hold her team and let them know she doesn’t know what the fuck she’s doing, that she’s just as lost as anyone else. She is just an exposed nerve, nothing but pain pulsing through her.

They don’t care. Eli’s family is gone. Scott and little Cassie are gone.

They all want their revenge, too.

…

They stop. They stop in New Mexico because Susan is there, for some reason Kate can’t comprehend, and her sister crushes Kate to her chest.

_I’m so sorry_ .

And this is important, Kate’s teams shoulder to shoulder, Eli and Cassie and Billy and David and America and Nate and Teddy,  _this is my team,_ getting blessed, voices rising and falling over them as they are blessed, as they are given protection, as her people and her past and her planet weave around them.

...

Her arm is still threaded through the leather straps of Steve’s shield, not yet able to let it go.

If anyone notices, they don’t comment.

Pepper reaches over ans squeezes Kate’s shoulder.

“When Thanos...snapped his fingers, when he did what he did—it hurt him, somehow. It hurt the gauntlet itself.” Her eyes seek Thor’s, to see if he has any insight, but he remains silent. “It was charred, somehow. Like it’d gotten blasted by something. I don’t know if—if this would work, I don’t know what we could do, but I think there’s a possibility we might be able to get the stones loose, to break them from the gauntlet itself, and not have to worry about getting the glove off of him.”

Nobody says anything.

Nobody is saying a lot of anything in general still, just lots of stunned silences. Eli is the only one looking at her. David is staring at someplace past her shoulder, America is examining the ceiling, Cassie is looking at her hand clenched in Noh’s. Nate and JONAS are glaring at one another.

Finally, Billy looks at her.

He’d been holding Tommy as he faded away.

“Okay. Sounds like a plan.”

Rhodey nods. “Okay. But we’re not going in half-cocked--”

“We?” Eli interrupts. “No, no, Colonel. No we. You’ve got to stay here in case this doesn’t work. You’re in charge of the Avengers, you’ve gotta defend the earth from what happens next. You need to be here in case...whoever it is that Fury called shows up.”

“You don’t know?” Teddy looks around the room, like he thinks they’re joking. “How do you—that’s—she’s not Kree, but she kind of is. She helped a group of Skrull refugees here on Earth, helped relocate them in the 90s. Guys, it’s Carol. You know? Aunt Carol?”

A memory works its way through the fog in Kate’s mind. “Like, ‘break glass in case of emergency’ Aunt Carol? Not welcome in Blockbuster Aunt Carol?”

“That’s the one!” For the first time in weeks, Teddy looks excited. “That’s her symbol, that’s the pager she altered for Fury--”

“I’m sorry, a fucking _pager_?” Rhodey interrupts. “Carol who?”

“Carol Danvers,” a new voice says from the edge of the room. “Former Air Force pilot. Now would someone mind telling me where Fury is? Or can one of you tell me where the _fuck_ my wife and daughter are?”

They all turn. The woman’s fists are glowing.

“Hi, Aunt Carol!”

“Hello, Theodore. Now, about my family.”

Nate sighs and cues up the video.

….

She’s in Siberia. Kate knows because she just _does_ , in the way of dreams, the bare bulbs flickering over her head, swinging in a breeze she can’t feel. 

The hallway stretches ahead and behind, endless in either direction, innumerable doors on either side of her.

She wonders if Bucky is here, and starts opening doors.

“Hey.”

Kate blinks into the morning light that is haloing around Steve’s head. Kate reaches behind her to poke at Bucky so he can see it too, but he catches her fingers before they can make contact with his ribs.

“We should stay in bed all day,” Steve continues. “Just because we can.”

Bycky’s lips press against the back of her neck.

“Hang on,” Kate sits halfway up, looking around. They’re home, but that seems...wrong, somehow. “Where are we?”

She’s just freaking out about nothing, she’s got to be. They’re just home, in the hazy orange light filtering through the curtains, a wolf howling in the distance--

Bucky bolts upright, grabbing Kate’s hands and pulling her close to peer into her eyes. “How are you here?”

“What?”

“Did you die?” He continues. “Did Thanos--”

The realization tears through her like someone punched a hole in her chest. “I’m going to kill Thanos,” she says, even though it’s a dream and it doesn’t matter.

“How?” Steve is angry with her. “How are you planning on killing him, Kate?”

“With help! Why does it matter?”

“Do you even know how to find him?”

“Aren’t dreams supposed to be less judgey?”

Bucky flops back agianst the pillows. “You think this is a dream?”

“What else would it be?”

From the window, Steve sighs, bracing himself against the wall and staring moodily out at the golden fileds of grass, at the orange-tinged mountains.

“So you don’t know where to find him,” Steve continunes.

“Billy is working up a spell. We’ll figure it out.”

Steve rounds on her, dropping to his knees at the edge of the bed and gripping her elbows, turning her to face him. “I need you to stay here until I come back. Kate, can you do that?”

“I don’t know when I’m going to wake up,” she points out.

“Try. Please, it’s important.” Steve thunders out of the room, shouting. “Gamora!”

“Why is he looking for Gamora?” Kate asks, turning to Bucky, who shrugs.

“How have you been doing, Kate? You look like hell.”

“Gee. Thanks.”

“You do,” Bucky insists. “Steve. Fuckin’ Christ, just sit down and enjoy the moment.”

“Yeah, fuckin’ _Christ_ , Steve,” Kate parrots. 

B ucky pins her after that, blowing a raspberry against the skin of her neck, wriggling his entire body against hers.

Which is, of course, when she wakes up, terribly,  terribly lonely.

She doesn’t cry. That feels important, somehow. She should be crying as she lays curled up in a bunk on the Marvel, knees to her chest.

Breathing is so hard.

She should be crying.

Kate digs her nails into her upper arms, digging, digging, until she releases and can see little half-moon indentations left by her nails.

Kate accepts the fact that she’s not going to go to sleep again, not soon, and swings her legs over the side of the bed. The cold of the ship nips at her feet as she pads out of her room to the one next door.

“David?” She raps her knuckles against his door before sliding it open. “David?”

“Yeah, me neither,” he slides over and Kate crawls into bed behind him.

...

It’s a long trip. They have to dodge ships, empty, dead and floating or half-destroyed by overheated engines or crashes or who knows what.

Rocket has taken to perching on her shoulder, tugging at her hair and explaining how the ships fell apart as they sit next to Carol, copiloting the Marvel.

He’s the one who finds Tony and Nebula.

…

Tony doesn’t let go of her for almost a day.

...

“We’re an hour out,” Carol’s voice crackles over the speakers. “Everyone start getting prepped.”

Billy and Kate gravitate towards one another, brushing shoulders and minor clothing adjustments for each other. Kate carefully, mindfully, ties her hair back with a long strip of white cloth, a drumbeat in her fingertips, pounding in her ears.

…

Carol drops them practically on top of Thanos, in a sad-man hut on the edge of nowhere.

The fuck is he doing? Contemplating his existence? Grousing about his manpain on reddit, telling people about his fucking terrible ideas about population control?

Thanos fights back, but they have the jump on him.

It’s chaos. Kate is shooting, Magneto is trying to pull the gauntlet apart, the rest of them are using whatever powers and skills they have, aiming them at Thanos.

Magneto strains. Billy strains, America and Thor are punching at him, Carol sending power from her fists, Nebula and Shuri shoot constantly from the ship and the glove cracks even more. It cracks, one of the gems working its way loose--

And it tumbles towards the ground.

 

Kate knows it can’t touch the surface of the planet. If it does, everything is lost.

She dives, clasping it her her fist, and the world erupts.

 

Kate thought—many, many years ago—she thought she'd felt pain. That she knew what true pain was.

It turns out she did not.

It is instinct for her hand to curl around the stone _power, power stone, purple, power_ —and it burns. It burns its way into her _veins_ and Kate thinks that this is what it must be to be a star, to _burn_. What it must be like to have hydrogen licking the inside of her skin.

Power.

It makes her want to scream—the stone burns through her lungs, to her throat, it makes her skin dry and brittle and she begins to _crack_.

No.

No cracking.

Kate swallows the scream back, searches beneath the pain and finds other things to feel.

Things like her lungs expanding and contracting, things like her neurons firing, the feeling of the earth hurtling through space and the sun, so very far away, burning just like she is. Burning and molten and _powerful_.

She looks deeper still, until she finds the things that give her strength, that give her power. David's laughter and Steve's hands and Bucky's smile. Sue's terrible singing voice and doing yoga with Natasha, planting tomatoes with Laura, texting Cassie and dancing with Billy and sitting on rooftops with Tony and Pete--

Oh. _Oh._

Kate finds she cannot feel the pain anymore, that she cannot feel her fear, but that she can feel the ionized taste of Thor, the lighting crackling in every cell, she can feel the vibranium encasing her, _calling_ to her. The latent rage of the Hulk, the bright-white energy of Billy, the presence of Jean burning the back of her nose, the hum of Tony's suit, all that _power._

She can feel it. She can touch it. Her life, all she has survived and experienced, stretches before her and behind her. Each thread and knot in the tapestry of her life leading her here, leading her to this moment so that she could do this.

So that she could control this.

So she could _survive_ it.

The Infinity Stone pushes at Kate, and she pushes  _back_ . 

Her palm burns but it doesn’t matter; Kate rolls from her side to her knees, her hand cradled against her stomach.

_Get back up._

This strange planet with its strange plants and barren cities beats against her feet, her heart beats in time with the aching heartbeat of the planet, the spirits of everyone ended before their time, resonating in her.

Her eyes are not open.

She opens them.

Thanos is staring at her. Appalled, or shocked, maybe. Kate takes a step, and he takes a step.

Backward.

She takes another step.

It’s fear in his eyes.

Kate cocks her hand back and throws it forward, connecting with him, sending him reeling.

He is horrified, and then he blinks away—but he leaves a trail of energy in his wake and Kate can see it.

The powers simmers underneath her skin, and she turns to her team.

“What the _fuck_ ,” Tony says.

“Is she dead?” Teddy hisses.

"Is that what you think?"

"Is she crazy now?" Tony asks, staring at her worriedly.

"Ha!" Kate barks out a laugh that sends him stumbling back a foot. "No, I'm just fucking with you. This is a massive fucking trip, let me tell you. I think I could lift a mountain."

"Why isn't she burning up dead?" Rocket asks bluntly. "It took like five of us to hold that thing last time, and it almost killed me."

"Because you're not human."

"No kidding. Nova Corps said that the only reason Quill could hold if for so long was because he had non-human in him. His dad was Ego."

Carol shakes her head. "No. If he had been fully human, he would have been able to hold it longer, like she is. Humans, or Terrans, whatever you want to call us, we're one of the strongest species in the universe. Mutants, supersoldiers, weaponry—we haven't even made it out of our own solar system yet." Carol turns back to Kate. "You need to let go. It's going to burn you out."

Shuri presses something into Carol’s hand, tapping away at her tablet and muttering something Kate doesn't catch.

"I'm fine, like I said, I could move a mou-oooh," Kate understands. "Oh I see. It's a trick. The stone wants me to burn out."

Carol holds the vibranium pouch out to Kate again. Kate’s hand shakes with the effort it takes to tip the stone into it.

“It might not,” Carol says, catching Kate under the armpits as the energy drains out of her. “It just might not know how to interact with organics.”

“Yeah,” Kate says as the power drains out of her, he knees buckling. “I think it likes me.”

The world goes dark around her.

…

The Stone doesn’t react to vibranium, and Tony and Shuri are hard at work, creating drones with vibranium holders for the other Stones. Kate fidgets with the Stone around her neck, thinking about what it felt like to hold it, wondering what it would be like to hold the others.

How Thanos can apparently hold them without being harmed, but how he needs the Gauntlet to control them.

She hadn't needed a Gauntlet. According to Rocket, Quill hadn’t either. Neither had Jane, according to Thor.

“Humans can control the Stones,” Kate says, to no one in particular. “Like, without help. But Thanos can’t.”

Shuri looks up but doesn’t engage, her focus quickly turning back to the light welding she’s doing.

“I can control a Stone when I’m holding it in my bare hand. But Thanos can’t.”

Tony nods at her, then adjusts his grip on the item Shuri is welding.

“What if we can’t control the gauntlet, but we can control the Stones?”

Thor frowns. “Say that again.”

“What if a bunch of humans, together, _were_ the gauntlet?”

“What?” Rocket snorts against her neck. “Like a buncha you idiots holding hands an’ singing songs together to defeat the evil?”

“I mean, it sounds dumb when you say it like that and we probably won’t be singing, but...yeah. I mean. Yeah.” Kate fidgets with the Power Stone’s casing, running it back and forth along the chain around her neck until Rocket snatches it from her hands. 

“Stop that,” he scolds. “You’re driving me crazy.”

“Well excuse me for trying to fix the universe,” she snaps.

Cassie taps the table. “I mean—I’m willing to try,” she says. “Anyone else? Any humans wanna play the weirdest game of red rover?”

Hands go up.

…

This time—months later and a tracking spell from Billy later—they find him.

Kate hates Thanos.

This time, though, the plan is different.

This time, Magneto pulls at the metal, this time they focus on the gauntlet, on breaking it, on tearing it apart.

And it does.

Shuri’s drones swoop in, catching the stones in vibranium holders before delivering them to the members of Kate’s team as they each clasp each other’s arms—Cassie holding the orange Soul Stone, Nate the green Time Stone, America the blue Space Stone, David the yellow Mind Stone, Kate the purple Power Stone, and Billy, in the middle, his experience commanding his power helping him channel them, holding the Reality Stone.

Kate knows what everyone is holding. She can _feel_ it, feel them, their life, their strengths.

Her family.

This is them, and the world around them falls away. It is a place between worlds, and Kate can feel the spirits press in on her, brushing her and whispering strength to her.

The place, where they are and are not, howls around them. The air burns out of orange to gold, and the howling intensifies.

Thanos is scared of it, but the noise calls to something in Kate.

Gamora stands a bit away, staring at them, tinted in an orange haze. Tommy is there; Loki and Noh and all who are lost--

Steve reaches for Kate and his hand passes right through her cheek. He says something that she cannot hear over the howling.

Kate can feel, distantly, the strain on her body, on the bodies of her team, as Billy does something—thinks it, commands it—that pulls from all of them, bright flares of power from the stones they hold, power that is cracking through their skin, as Billy uses this power to knit something together, to pull from this howling world around them.

Howling and drumbeats and a primal scream and faint chimes on the wind, the smell of lilacs--

Kate stares at Thanos and he starts to disintegrate.

_It’s done, let go!_ Billy tells them.

But they can’t let go. Not of one another, not of those holding them on a different plane—Carol and Rocket, for starters--

They are bound to one another.

But Kate is power. 

And Kate commands them to let go.

…

There is darkness, and there is yelling.

There is being hauled aboard the Marvel, there are several unconscious Avengers, there is a trip to earth.

On Earth, there is yelling and crying and confusion, and arguments, and joy. Above all, joy.

Kate hears none of this. Not Bucky’s choked thanks to Rhodes, not the heated arguments in the days that follow about how to heal her.

They needn’t have worried.

The Stone is doing all the healing she’ll ever need.

…

Singing.

There are notes and words, a comforting familiar tune that Kate hears from wherever she is.

...

Kate opens her eyes.

The singing that pulled her back from...wherever she was...stops.

“Welcome back, daughter.”

Kate turns her head, the stiff muscles of her neck protesting the movement. “Papa? You look—what _happened_ to you?”

“A funny thing. I woke up one day looking and feeling half my age.”

Kate stares at her grandfather, who looks about...fifty, she’d say.

“Your grandmother too. Strange thing.”

A hysterical laugh bubbles up in Kate’s throat. Well, they’d tried to keep everything the same. Kate can’t say she’s mad about this change.

One of the hands holding hers trembles, and Kate gives it a reassuring squeeze before looking at the owner.

“Hi, Steve.”

“Kate,” is all he manages before his face crumples and he bends over her, muffling his tears against her elbow. Footsteps thunder down the hall and the door to Kate’s room bursts open. Papa steps aside just in time to avoid being bowled over by Bucky, who presses kisses against her head.

It takes a while for everyone to calm down—and once everyone starts, Kate’s grandmother an d sister come charging in, followed closely by Tony, dragging David, which leads off a parade of team members that Shuri, Okoye, and Carol forcibly remove. 

It’s about an hour after she wakes that she gets any real answers—that she’s been out for two weeks, a week longer than anyone else; that it took them three days to get back to earth; that Loki and Gamora, the Asgardians and the Nova Corps were brought back as well, and that—well--they didn’t exactly put everything back the way it was.

“What do you mean we got rid of global warming?” Kate asks, not quite believing.

“Not just global warming. Ocean trash, space garbage, endangered species are thriving,” Bucky tells her. “People are saying it’s practically a Utopia.”

Kate has to lay back down for a while, after that.

…

“It’s a tiny little shard. Barely a grain of sand,” Shuri tells Kate a week later.

If she looks very hard, Kate can see the glimmer of purple embedded in her skin.

“It sort of got burned into you, and I can’t get it out,” Shuri continues. “It’s healing you a lot.” She goes on. “And it’s delaying your aging process,” she says. “So I hope you meant that _til death do us part_ think with Steve and Bucky, because that’s going to be a really long time, from what I can tell.”


End file.
